63 pages • 2 hours read
Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton)Mrs Spring Fragrance
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1912A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
“Mrs. Spring Fragrance”
“The Inferior Woman”
“The Wisdom of the New”
“Its Wavering Image”
“The Gift of Little Me”
“The Story of One White Woman Who Married a Chinese”
“Her Chinese Husband”
“The Americanizing of Pau Tsu”
“In the Land of the Free”
“The Chinese Lily”
“The Smuggling of Tie Co”
“The God of Restoration”
“The Three Souls of Ah So Nan”
“The Prize China Baby”
“Lin John”
“Tian Shan’s Kindred Spirit”
“The Sing Song Woman”
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
“The Prize China Baby”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Story Summary: "The Prize China Baby"
Fin Fan had been born into slavery, and her mistress sold her at a young age to Chung Kee, who made her his wife. Fin Fan spends all day in a dark room behind Chung Kee’s factory winding tobacco leaves. Her only joy in life is her baby daughter, Jessamine Flower. Chung Kee resents the baby because he thinks it slows down Fin Fan in her work. Fin Fan tries hard to keep up so that Chung Kee does not make good on his threat to give her child away to another woman.
One day a Mission lady sees Jessamine Flower and tells Fin Fan that she should enter her beautiful baby in a “Chinese baby show” (123) at the Presbyterian Mission. Fin Fan cannot wait for the pageant. She thinks that if Jessamine Flower wins a prize, then Chung Kee will value the baby more and be less likely to take her away from Fin Fan.
On Christmas Eve day, Fin Fan sneaks away from the dark little room in order to enter her child into the pageant, leaving behind a large bundle of tobacco leaves that need to be wound. Jessamine Flower does get a prize, and Fin Fan heads home with the baby “delighted and excited” (124).
